Editing Distributary (section)

==North America==
[[File:Atchafalaya River.png|thumb|[[Atchafalaya River]]]]

In [[Louisiana]], the [[Atchafalaya River]] is an important distributary of the [[Mississippi River]]. Because the Atchafalaya takes a steeper route to the [[Gulf of Mexico]] than does the Mississippi, over several decades the Atchafalaya has captured more and more of the Mississippi's flow, after the Mississippi meandered into the [[Red River of the South]]. The [[Old River Control Structure]], a [[dam]] which regulates the outflow from the Mississippi into the Atchafalaya, was completed by the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|Army Corps of Engineers]] in 1963. The dam is intended to prevent the Atchafalaya from capturing the main flow of the Mississippi and stranding the ports of [[Baton Rouge]] and [[New Orleans]].<ref>[[John McPhee]], [[The Control of Nature]]</ref>

In [[British Columbia]], Canada, the [[Fraser River]] has numerous sloughs and side-channels which may be defined as distributaries. This river's final stretch has three main distributaries: the [[North Arm of the Fraser|North Arm]] and the [[South Arm of the Fraser|South Arm]], and a few smaller ones adjoining them.

Examples of inland distributaries:
* [[Teton River (Idaho)|Teton River]]—a tributary of [[Henrys Fork (Snake River)|Henrys Fork]] in [[Idaho]]—splits into two distributary channels, the North Fork and South Fork, which join Henrys Fork miles apart.
* [[Parting of the Waters]] National Landmark within Wyoming's [[Teton Wilderness]] on the [[Continental Divide]] where [[North Two Ocean Creek]] splits into two distributaries, Pacific Creek and Atlantic Creek, which ultimately flow into their respective oceans.
* [[Kings River (California)]] has deposited a large alluvial fan at the transition from its canyon in the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]] mountains to the flat [[Central Valley (California)|Central Valley]].  Distributaries flow north into the Pacific Ocean via the [[San Joaquin River]] and south into an [[endorheic basin]] surrounding [[Tulare Lake]].
* The [[Qu'Appelle River]], in [[Saskatchewan]] and [[Manitoba]], is a distributary of the [[South Saskatchewan River]]. Its flow is controlled by the [[Qu'Appelle River Dam]]. This dam forms the southern arm of [[Lake Diefenbaker]].